Just starting & needing advice

[midnitemyhill]

Hi, I'm new to this home brewing lark. I used to make wine about 15 years ago, but forgotten nearly all of it. Just started up again a week or so ago and looking forward to the next few months.

I started a 4.5l 4week California Rioja Tinto last week. After mixing the grape juice with the required amount of water I measured the start SG as 1.062. There was no requirement to add extra sugar to the brew. It advised on the instructions that it should be between 1.080 - 1.095. I now realise that I'm not going to get the alcohol content I was expecting. Should I have added sugar to the demijohn before starting fermentation to reach the required starting SG ?
Today day 8, I measured the SG to be 0.996 and as per the instructions racked off into another demijohn for secondary fermentation. I'm supposed to wait until day 20 when the SG is below 0.995 before degassing etc. As the SG I measured is near to what is required should I have gone straight to the degassing stage ? I'm curious as to why I've almost reached the required SG after only 8 of the expected 20 days, or is it because the start SG wasn't as high as it should have been ?

I've also started a 7 day,4.5l Solomon Grundy Rose brew last weekend. This should have been ready to stabilise today, but is still reading 1.022. They advise continuing until below 0.995. The instructions state that once this is reached the stabilizer can be added, degassed etc. with no mention of racking off into another demijohn. What's your advice here ? Siphon off before degassing etc to leave as much of the sediment behind or continue as per the instructions leaving the brew in the same demijohn until final bottle up ?

Sorry to be so long winded but I wanted to give as much info as possible.

Thanks in advance,
Marc

 

[baggybill]

Welcome mate, first brews are always the ones that make you nervous - you want to start with a great success (been there!).

You can safely leave it in the first fv for a month. I personally wouldn't leave it any longer than this but would rack it off to another fv to either continue fermenting or stabilise and de-gass.

The instructions are a rough guide - pick out the important bits.

> I measured the start SG as 1.062
Was it 100% thoroughly mixed? Did you account for temp? Was total volume including the tin + water etc.?

> with no mention of racking off into another demijohn...
It does no harm racking it, just don't splash it about, less air contact the better.

> Siphon off before degassing...
Definitely!

For most of my wines, I normally leave in primary fv for 4 weeks, undisturbed. Even if I know it's finished (no bubbles) at week 3.

I then rack to another sanitised demi (or 25l fv), stabilise, de-gass and add finings.

Leave for 7 days, rack and store for conditioning or bottle a few.

I read a post where a guy swears by racking at 14 days, whether required or not, and it makes a big difference to his white Pingos. His theory was that the less time spent sitting on the yeast cake, the better.

My taste buds aren't that good and I haven't tried this but thought I would make ya aware :-)

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Welcome to the forum midnitemyhill :

Bill has covered most of your questions, i would add ignore instructions when it comes to times your hydrometer will tell you when its finished.

 

[midnitemyhill]

Thanks for the advice both.
I'm still confused as to why my starting SG was so low at 1.062. As fermentation has now finished the end SG gives me an alcohol content of just 8.7, which is much much less than what I was expecting or wanting - was expecting something between 12-13% for a Rioja. I'm pretty sure it was mixed thoroughly before starting so I had a true SG reading - if it was a kit where sugar had to be added I could understand if it had not been mixed properly then I'd get a lower SG than what should otherwise have been.
To avoid this happening again I assume if my measured SG is not high enough I can just add more sugar before I start, even though the kit doesn't require it?

Just out of interest which are the better kits - the ones which need sugar to be added or those which already contain it in the juice ?

Thanks again.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I don't think there is a difference, you may have got a bad one as you say the SG was lower than you expected, for peace of mind you could buy the kits that you have to add sugar to.

You could also make you own - http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=49462